I wanted to start a thread and see how you all keep your OS's clean and healthy. I like to keep my OS at its default after a reinstall but as you install apps it gets bogged down.

I remember seeing a post and kiriakost hasn't ever reformatted because he knows how to keep his os clean.

I'd like to add tips to this post so that it could be constructive and used so that other users can keep thier system healthy. Tips like how to avoid virus' clearing out useless cookies and what not and how to keep the system quick and responsive. I hope this becomes quite popular because it would benefit alot of members reading it.

Great Idea! Remember to defrag frequently, do disk cleanups, run ccleaner, etc. Every once in a while take a glance at your startup programs and services in msconfig, clean out anything unnecessary ( I know kinda vague, just do some google seaches to see if you really need what is running). Lets here some more suggestions.

I use Vista Manager, great utility, does a great job cleaning junk files and registry, actually fixed my slow-shut down issue a while back, plus it has a lot of other great tuning areas and os tweaks. I do use CCLeaner, I have my PC set to defrag once a week, run Avast for antivirus, and use Malwarebytes and Spybot for anti-malware duties, overall I gotta say it's worked out great thus far!

I want to add a bit where is shows how to get rid of added in options when you right click for example when you right click the desktop you get an option for nividia control panel.

I'd like to thank everyone that has helped so far. I hope more people can gather info so I can centralise it for tpu and its community. Instead of browsing endless sites it could all be found here. I'm going to bed so please keep adding and I will update this tomorrow morning. Remember to check the original post for updates.

Ok,i have 12 programs other than Vista's crap upon startup and that's my limit with Vista
I use Live one care on all 3 of my pc's and run it's tune up once a month $25 a year 3 pc's
I use Auslogic's disk defrag from tucows Free!!
That's all i use as far as programs
I've had Vista hp 32 on my daughter's computer since Feb,2007 no reinstalls,3 cpu's 4 video cards,2 types of memory at one point or another
Before i update any driver's i delete the old driver,defrag and then reboot and install the new driver.
Live one care gets rid of junk files as i have it set,and does a extra thorough job with virus scans and defrag
however i am on my 3rd install on my tweaking pc-but that's my fault it has Vista hp 64
My main pc is only 4 months old so i cant say how that will hold up but perfect so far

When i'm finished installing Vista, i have my own custom "tweaks" that i apply. Afterwards:

I use Ccleaner before every shutdown.

I use Raxco's PerfectDisk 8 once a month to defrag my drives.

I use Macecraft RegSupreme Pro when Install/Uninstall stuff. (It seem's that this as been discontinued to be replaced by a free version in Q3 2009)

I only install what i need and use.

Update

This is so cool! I was reading this on Macecraft website:

To show our gratitude, all customers who own a license for RegSupreme Pro or RegSupreme will be able to update to jv16 PowerTools 2009 without any additional fees. You can simply download the next released version of PowerTools 2009 (to be released later this week) and it will work with your existing license file.

I downloaded PowerTools 2009 and applied my RegSupreme registration and it worked!